I have been brewing for about 2 years. Some time ago I changed my yeast to nottingham. About 3 months ago I got a new batch of yeast. After I started using it I stated to get odd growth on top of my beer after the primary fermentation. It takes about 3-4 days after it is done fermenting to show up. And after I add my hops to dry hop in the 2ed fermentation. Now my beer tastes fine out of the fermenter. Now a 2nd odd thing is the beer will not self carbonation in the keg after a add priming suger. Now If I open the keg and add 1oz of suger and a little bit of new yeast the beer will carbonation. The beer tastes fine after it ages for 8 weeks. I have no idea what is going on with this odd growth. Now I have not changed anything in the way I make my beer. Any idea's

Now I just kegged the batch that I took the picture of. I tapped off some beer from the racking port and it tasted fine. If I had a bacteria in the beer would it not be through out the beer and not just the top?

It's hard, for me at least, to tell from a picture what is going on. But I'd say the "odd growth" you're seeing are just yeast colonies. I base that on the fact that the beer is couple of months old now and taste OK. I'm not a Nottingham user, but I have noticed that different yeasts exhibit different characteristics during fermentation. Luckily, I've never had an infection in six years of brewing, but it is my understanding that they look like stringy matter in the beer, not just on top. The appearance is not unlike snot, if I may be so crude. So based on what you have said I think you're fine and have nothing to worry about.

Well I have had contaminated beer. I did not have a infection per say, but some kind of contaminate. I tossed out 35gal of beer before I found out it was a contaminated water filter. I now installed the water filter in the main water line.

What has me bugged about this thing is I have been using Nottingham for months before this started. And never had this happen before. I have been talking to the guy that got me started in brewing and we come to the conclusion that it had to be something to do with the yeast. But he never ran into any thing like it before. I have noticed that the new yeast I have been getting is very new. The exp date is 10/07 and 12/07. The other yeast I was using was with in 3 months of the date. I don't know if that would make a difference or not.

As for my beer not carbonating in the kegs it maybe I'm not getting the cleaner all rinsed out. I noticed that the beer in the kegs did not have any carbonation in them but the small party kegs did. And it was the same batch of beer.

Thanks for the info. I will keep a eye on this. I just hate it when things like this just popup like this. And you can not track it down right away.

Well i'm down to the last 2 batches of the beer with the odd grouth. The last 2 batchs I taped the beer was off on the taste. It was drinkable but it was not the best. So I had a problem somewere. I have 10 more gals before I get into the beer made with the Muttons yeast.

Well I found what was causing my odd growth problem. I plastic nipple that was used to connect my racking ball valve to the fermenter had some damaged threads on it. And no matter how hard a cleaned it still must have harbored bacteria in the damaged parts. I replaced it and I have no more problems. One tends to forget the basics from time to time.

Lone Wolf wrote:Well I found what was causing my odd growth problem. I plastic nipple that was used to connect my racking ball valve to the fermenter had some damaged threads on it. And no matter how hard a cleaned it still must have harbored bacteria in the damaged parts. I replaced it and I have no more problems. One tends to forget the basics from time to time.

LW

Ok the plastic nipple was not the problem. As it turns out I get the odd growth if I don't drain off the settlement off the bottom of the fermenter in the 1st week after it is done fermenting. I have been draing off the settlement the day after it is done fermenting, about day 4 and I do not get the odd growth on top any more. If anyone has any info as to why this is I would live to know.

Well a update on this problem. After the last post on this thread I did a lot of testing off and on when i had time to find the problem. I found the source of the contamination. The bag of hops I was using was contaminated. Not sure how it happend. I noticed that the growth would show up after I dry hopped. And it did not matter if I used a hop bag or not. So as a test I went back to boiling the 2ed hopping and the problem went away. Day hopped a again and it came back. Boiled it and no problem. Tossed the bag and got a new one and I did not have any problems with the new batch I just made. Live and learn.

Lone Wolf wrote:I found the source of the contamination. The bag of hops I was using was contaminated. Not sure how it happend. I noticed that the growth would show up after I dry hopped. And it did not matter if I used a hop bag or not.

Are you sure this just wasn't a bad batch of hops ??
I have seen hops go bad before when exposed to warm/hot temps
for to long.

Lone Wolf wrote:I found the source of the contamination. The bag of hops I was using was contaminated. Not sure how it happend. I noticed that the growth would show up after I dry hopped. And it did not matter if I used a hop bag or not.

Are you sure this just wasn't a bad batch of hops ??I have seen hops go bad before when exposed to warm/hot tempsfor to long.

tim

It could have been. I was surprised when I tracked down the problem. I can not remember if the problem started after I opened the bag or if it was open and then got contaminated.

To me this looks just like the pellicle I get on my sour beers that I pitch wild yeast/bacteria into on purpose. The bugs form that pellicle on top to limit the amount of O2 they receive. Have you tasted any of your beers after they have set for a substantial amount of time or do you go through your beer fast? I would imagine with this pellicle on top it must mean there have to be some bugs at work but maybe they are slow working and you aren't noticing any flavors being attributed by them. Interesting stuff.

Homebrewerbrian wrote:To me this looks just like the pellicle I get on my sour beers that I pitch wild yeast/bacteria into on purpose. The bugs form that pellicle on top to limit the amount of O2 they receive. Have you tasted any of your beers after they have set for a substantial amount of time or do you go through your beer fast? I would imagine with this pellicle on top it must mean there have to be some bugs at work but maybe they are slow working and you aren't noticing any flavors being attributed by them. Interesting stuff.

Yea I did drink some of them. The tast was off. but was drinkable. Now that I think about it more it was a bit sour. I was not trying for that lol.